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PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 










The Seven-league Boots fitted his Feet and Legs 

JUST AS IF THEY HAD BEEN MADE FOR HIM 


ujinn 

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PERRAULT’S 

FAIRY TALES 


Newly Translated by 5. R. Littlewood 
with Twelve Coloured Illustrations by Honor C. Appleton 

j 



BOSTON 

DANA ESTES & CO. 
208-212 SUMMER STREET 


LONDON 

HERBERT & DANIEL 

95 NEW BOND STREET, W 


/ 2 - Z'LZ^O 




/iegic 





CONTENTS 


PAGE 

List of Illustrations ...... vii 

Preface ix 

To A Certain Little Lady . . . . xv 

1. The Sleeping Beauty i 

2 . Little Red-Riding-Hood . . . .25 

3. Bluebeard 31 

4. Puss IN Boots 43 

5. The Fairies 53 

6. Cinderella 59 

7. Riquet of the Tuft 73 

8. Little Thumbling 87 




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ILLUSTRATIONS 


1. The Seven-league Boots fitted his Feet 

AND Legs just as if they had been made 
FOR HIM . . . . Frontispiece 

2. They all went to sleep also . 

3. She met a rascally old Wolf. 

4. Sister Anne climbed to the top of the 

Tower 

5. A SILLY young Rabbit crept into the 

Sack 

6. She drew some Water from the best 

PART OF THE FOUNTAIN .... 

7. She was a hundred times more beautiful 

THAN HER SiSTERS COULD BE . 

8. Nothing remained of her Magnificence 

SAVE ONE OF HER LITTLE GLASS SLIPPERS 

All this helped to console the poor 
Queen 


PAGE 


/ 

7 

25 ^ 

37 ^ 


44 




/ 


54 

60 

69 ^ 
74 v' 


9 - 


viii ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

10. She saw under her Feet what looked 

LIKE A GREAT KiTCHEN . . . . 8o 

11. He filled his Pockets with little white 

Pebbles 89 

12. They only went farther astray . . 94 


Preface 


T this time of day, what else is needed 



1 by way of an apology for translating 
Perrault, save the frail excuse that it has 
never been quite conscientiously done before ? 
For so long the notion has been spread abroad 
that Perrault must be deprived of all credit 
for the little cluster of immortal tales that he 
ushered into the world’s literature. They are, 
of course, ancient as the hills — “ solar myths 
everyone of them,” says Max Miiller; but 
then Max Muller saw solar myths behind 
every bush. Heaven knows what ingenuity 
and scholarship have been expended in tracing 
Cinderella back to the Egypt of the Pharaohs, 
in coupling the Sleeping Beauty and her 
Prince with Cupid and Psyche, and Little 
Thumbling and his Ogre with Ulysses and 
Polyphemus, in finding parallels from Sanskrit 
legends and Zulu folklore, and so on and so 
on. To what end? Is there a story worth 
telling in the world that cannot be transmuted 


X 


PREFACE 


into the eternal symbolism of Life and Death, 
Light and Darkness— facts which must have 
been as present to primaeval man as they are 
to us, if not far more so ? 

With all this the present translation of the 
prose tales has nothing to do. It is just the 
fruit of a belief that Perrault himself was, in 
some matters at any rate, a man of genius, and 
that his touch in the stories — wherever they 
may have had their birth — is worth a very 
great deal. After all, how does it help the 
true effect of the story to fancy that Cinderella 
with her glass slipper, flying from the Prince 
after midnight has come and gone, is the dawn 
fading before the splendour of the day, or that 
Little Red-Riding-Hood is the crimson sunset, 
so soon to be swallowed up by the Wolf of 
night ? If this be so, why drag in the elder 
sisters, or the dear old grandmother who was 
“not quite herself,” and must presumably 
have been only an incarnation of the day 
before yesterday, who ought to have been 
dead long ago ? 

Those of us who are children, or remember 


PREFACE 


XI 


having been so, know well enough that the 
child’s mind sees a personality not only in the 
sun and moon, but in every stick and stone, 
table, chair, beast, bird, moral quality, danger, 
and even illness, and cannot imagine them 
otherwise. Presumably this dramatic instinct 
is common to the little Zulu of to-day and to 
the little Frenchman of the reign of Louis Quat- 
orze, when Colbert’s learned secretary devoted 
the leisure of his old age to these “Tales of 
Mother Goose.” It is probable, too, that to 
the average child of any clime or epoch the 
mysterious events of nature are the very last 
things that cause him or her any searchings 
of heart. His own little world, with its ever 
fresh adventures, injustices, struggles, and 
triumphs, and with all the surrounding circum- 
stances turned into living friends and foes — 
this is the prime source of his fancies. If they 
happen to have the same drift as the great 
nature allegories that have been with us since 
time began, is not the echoing of the natural 
law in the spiritual world true of childhood as 
of all other things ? 


Xll 


PREFACE 


Accordingly, while one may accept cheer- 
fully the hoary antiquity and vast dissemination 
of the themes of Perrault's Tales, one may at 
the same time thank the grave Academician 
most heartily either for his ignorance — though 
he was conscious enough of the classics — or 
for his discretion. For one reason or another 
he left out all this part of the business. The 
glittering background of King Louis’ Court 
was good enough for him, and he made it a 
part of Fairyland. He knew children as he 
knew men and women, and he knew that what 
they wanted was a story, told plainly, directly, 
dramatically. In this no child’s story-teller 
has surpassed him, though as a poet La Fontaine 
may be so much his superior. The little 
dialogue between Red- Riding- Hood and the 
Wolf is as immortal as the story itself. Sister 
Anne in “ Bluebeard ” stands on her turret for 
ever, looking out upon the sun-parched fields. 

In his delightful edition of the original, 
Mr. Andrew Lang inclines to the belief that 
Perrault’s son, “ P. Darmancour,” the boy 
in whose name the tales are dedicated to 


PREFACE 


xiii 

Madamoiselle de Chartres, was in reality the 
author — especially of just those natural dra- 
matic passages that suggest the already-tradi- 
tional nursery story — and that Perrault himself 
only looked through them and put in a piquant 
phrase or two. Whether this be so or not, the 
perception was equally Perrault’s. His, un- 
doubtedly, are the practical “ Morals ” upon 
which he laid such stress, and which are here 
set out, in verse, as faithfully as is possible 
under the circumstances. These “ Morals ” 
are, it will be noticed, always on the side of the 
young people, with never an unsympathetic, 
pompous, or priggish word. 

When all is said and done, how much better 
than a vague chaos of symbolic theories — 
imagination’s failures !— are these practical, 
vivid, personal stories as Perrault himself left 
them, without any wish-wash of sentiment, 
with no immaculate idealised “Prince Charm- 
ing,” no rescuing woodcutter to nullify the 
purport of Red-Riding-Hood’s fate. It may 
be said that in Perrault’s time fairy tales were 
coming into fashion, and that Perrault was 


XIV 


PREFACE 


only one of many sponsors, even at the Court 
itself. What has become of the others ? Those 
who have taken the trouble to wade through 
alike his predecessors and imitators know best 
what Perrault’s own insight, reticence, judg- 
ment, and simplicity have meant to the immor- 
tality of his particular version of each world- 
old story. Accordingly this translation has 
been done with no other aim than to render 
Perrault’s stories as simply and as literally as 
idiom will allow. Even where the experience 
of the courtier seems sometimes to tinge the 
wisdom of the nursery-philosopher, there has 
been no attempt to bring him into line with 
the modern child-cult. For anything that 
may be lacking in the style, grace, and sprightly 
directness of the original, the translator alone 
is to be blamed. 


London, 1911. 


S. R. L. 


TO A CERTAIN LITTLE LADY 


L ittle lady, long ago 

Lived this good Monsieur Perrault. 
Much he wrote of prose and rhyme, 

In the patch-and- powder time. 

Then the world was old and sere. 

People thought it fine to sneer — 

Sneered at things both great and small — 
Sneered at children most of all. 

“ This will never do,” quoth he ; 

“ Why ! It always seemed to me 
“ Grown-ups are a fearful bore ! 

“ Children know such masses more ! ” 

So he wrote out, word for word. 

All the stories that he’d heard 
When he was a tiny boy : 

Tales of wonder and of joy— 

“ Cinderella,” “ Riding-Hood,” 

" Beauty in the Sleepy Wood,” 

“ Little Thumbling ” — wise though young — 
” Riquet ” of the golden tongue ; 

“ Puss-in-Boots ” he dared to tell. 

And “The Fairies at the Well,” 

“ Blue-Beard,” with his band of wives, 

Who paid forfeit with their lives. 

These and other ones he took. 

Put them all into a book, 


xvi TO A CERTAIN LITTLE LADY 

And — hey, presto ! — there and then 
Everyone grew young again. 

Cares of state were set aside ; 

Folk forgot their pomp and pride ; 

How they wished they still could be 
Children at their nurse’s knee — 

Still could wander hand in hand 
Down the lane to Fairyland ! 

Once again they went to school, 

Just to learn the fairy-rule, 

That — although it’s understood 
No one can be always good — 

If you never really tiy, 

Fairies all will pass you by. 

Now — as possibly you know — 

Since those days of long ago, 

Monsieur Perrault’s little store 
Has been capped with more and more. 
Hosts of clever men have told 
Fairy-tales both new and old ; 

But the wonder always is 
None are half so good as his — 

None so simple, none so true. 

So I’ve brought his book to you. 

What though he be older far 
Than your great-great-grandmamma ? 

Read, and may old Perrault’s art 

Charm your thoughts and guide your heart ! 


The Sleeping Beauty 

O NCE upon a time there lived a King and 
Queen who were in great trouble because 
they had no children. They were sorrier 
about it than words can tell. They offered up 
prayers, made vows and pilgrimages, moved 
heaven and earth — and for a long time it all 
seemed to be of no use. At last, however, 
their wish was granted, and the Queen became 
the mother of a baby-girl. Such a fine christen- 
ing was never seen before. All the Fairies 
who could be found in the country — there 
were seven of them — were invited as god- 
mothers of the little Princess. As each one 
was bound to bring a fairy-gift — this being 
the custom with the Fairies of those times — 
it stood to reason that the Princess would 
have everything you could think of to make 
her perfectly good and beautiful and happy. 

After the christening was over, the whole 
company went back to the King's palace. 


2 


PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


where there was a great festival in honour of 
the Fairies. A magnificent banquet was 
spread for them, and in front of each Fairy 
was set a solid gold casket, holding a knife and 
fork and spoon of beaten gold, studded with 
diamonds and rubies. But, as they all took 
their places at the table, along came an old 
Fairy who had not been asked to the feast, 
because for the last fifty years she had never 
come out of the Tower in which she lived, 
and everybody believed her either dead or 
under some spell. 

The King ordered that a place should be 
laid for her ; but there was no means of giving 
her a solid gold casket like those that had been 
put before the others, because only seven had 
been made for the seven Fairies who were ex- 
pected. The old crone fancied herself slighted, 
and muttered some threat or other between her 
teeth. Now, one of the young Fairies, who 
happened to be near, heard this, and guessing 
that the old Fairy might revenge herself by 
dowering the little Princess with some piece of 
ill-luck, she hid herself behind the tapestries 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


3 


as soon as the company had risen from the 
table. She did this so that she might be the 
last to speak, and could repair as far as possible 
any evil that the old Fairy might be intending. 

Meanwhile, the Fairies began to bestow 
their gifts upon the Princess. The youngest 
promised, as her gift, that the Princess should 
be the most beautiful woman in the world; 
the next, that she should be cleverer than any 
mere mortal could hope to be ; the third, that 
whatever she should set her hand to she should 
do it with the most exquisite grace ; the fourth, 
that she should dance divinely ; the fifth, that 
she should sing like a nightingale; and the 
sixth, that she should be complete mistress of 
every sort of musical instrument. Then came 
the old Fairy’s turn. Shaking her head — more 
through spite than through age^ — she said that 
the Princess would one day prick her hand 
with a spindle, and die forthwith. 

This terrible prophecy made the whole com- 
pany shudder, and there was no one there who 
did not feel ready to cry. Just in the nick of 
time, the young Fairy came out from behind 


4 


PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


the tapestry. “ Reassure yourselves, King and 
Queen!” said she, speaking at the top of her 
voice ; “your daughter shall not die. It is true 
that I have not the power to prevent altogether 
what my old friend has decreed. The Princess 
will, indeed, prick her hand with a spindle; 
but, instead of dying, she will only fall into a 
deep sleep which will last a hundred years, at 
the end of which time a king's son will come 
to wake her.” 

The King, who did all he could to ward off 
the doom pronounced by the old Fairy, issued 
an edict forbidding anyone to use a spindle, 
or even to have one in the house, on pain of 
death. 

After fifteen or sixteen years, while the King 
and Queen had gone to one of their pleasure- 
houses, it so fell out that the Princess was play- 
ing in the castle, running through the rooms 
and climbing up stairway after stairway. At 
last she came to the very top of a turret, and 
found herself in a little garret, where an old 
woman sat all alone working with her spindle. 

“What are you doing there, my good 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


5 


woman ? ” said the Princess. “ I am spinning, 
my pretty child,” answered the old lady, who 
did not appear to recognise her. “ Oh ! how 
nice it looks,” exclaimed the Princess ; “ how 
do you manage it? Do give it me, and let 
me see if I can do it as well as you.” No 
sooner had she taken the spindle, catching 
hold of it a little roughly in her eagerness — or 
perhaps it was only the decree of the Fairies 
that ordained it so — than it pricked her hand, 
and she fell in a swoon to the ground. 

The good old lady, who seemed in a great 
state of alarm, cried for help. From every 
side the servants came running. One of them 
threw water in the Princess’s face. Another 
loosened her collar. Another slapped her 
hands. Another bathed her forehead with 
Queen-of-Hungary water. But nothing would 
restore her. 

Then the King, who had come back to the 
palace, and rushed upstairs as soon as he heard 
the noise, remembered the prophecy of the 
Fairies. Judging shrewdly enough that this 
was bound to happen, since the Fairies had 


6 


PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


said so, he had the Princess put in the most 
beautiful room in the palace, upon a bed 
embroidered with gold and silver. You would 
have said it was an angel lying there, so lovely 
was she, for her swoon had not robbed her 
complexion of its glowing tints. Her cheeks 
were still rosy, and her lips like coral. Her 
eyes were shut, but you could hear her soft 
breathing, and see clearly enough that she was 
not dead. 

He gave orders that the Princess should be 
left to sleep undisturbed until the time for her 
awakening should come. The good Fairy who 
had saved her life by dooming her to sleep for 
a hundred years was in the kingdom of Mata- 
quin, twelve thousand leagues away, when the 
accident happened to the Princess; but the 
news was soon brought to her by a little dwarf, 
who had seven-league boots, so that he could 
go seven leagues at each step. The Fairy 
started off directly, and before an hour was 
over she had arrived, in her chariot of fire 
drawn by dragons, and had come down in the 
courtyard of the castle. The King went to her, 







They all went to sleep also 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


7 


and gave her his hand to help her out of the 
chariot. She approved of everything that he 
had done, but as she was very far-seeing, she 
thought that when the Princess should come 
to wake she would be frightened at finding 
herself all alone in the old castle. What was 
to be done? How could this be avoided? 
The Fairy soon found a way out of the 
difficulty. 

She touched with her wand everyone who 
was in the castle except the King and Queen — 
governesses, ladies-in-waiting, chambermaids, 
courtiers, officers, stewards, cooks, scullions, 
errand-boys, guards, beadles, pages, footmen. 
She touched also all the horses that were in 
the stables — with the grooms — the big mastiffs 
in the stable-yard, and little “ Puff," the Prin- 
cess's tiny lap-dog, who lay close to her on the 
bed. The very moment that she touched them 
they all went off to sleep also, not to wake 
until such time as their mistress should wake 
too, so that they could attend upon her when 
necessary. Even the spits which were turning 
at the fire, laden with partridges and pheasants 


8 


PERRAULTS FAIRY TALES 


— they went to sleep as well, and the very fire 
itself. The Fairies did not take long over 
their work. 

Then the King and Queen, having kissed 
their much-loved daughter without waking 
her, left the castle, and published a proclama- 
tion that no one was to approach it, whoever 
they might be. The proclamation proved 
quite needless, for in a quarter-of-an-hour there 
had grown all round the park such a vast num- 
ber of trees, large and small, of brambles and 
of briars all intertwined one with the other, 
that neither man nor beast could have made a 
way through them. So thick and high was the 
growth, that you could see nothing more than 
just the tips of the castle-towers, and that only 
from a long way off. You may take it for 
granted that this was another piece of the 
Fairy’s handiwork, and all arranged so that the 
Princess, while she slept, should have nothing 
to fear from inquisitive strangers. 

At the end of a hundred years, the son of a 
King who was reigning at that time, and who 
did not belong to the same family as the sleep- 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


9 


ing Princess, was hunting in the neighbour- 
hood, and asked what were those towers that 
he saw peeping up above a dense forest. 
Everyone told him just what each had heard. 
Some said it was an old castle haunted by 
spirits ; others that all the sorcerers in the 
country gathered there to celebrate their rites. 
The most common belief was that an ogre 
lived there, who carried thither all the children 
he could lay hands on, and ate them at his 
leisure, without anyone being able to follow 
him, because he alone was able to force his 
way through the wood. 

The Prince was wondering what to think, 
when a peasant came forward. “ Fifty years 
ago, my Prince,” said the peasant, “ my father 
told me that there was a Princess in the castle 
— the most beautiful Princess ever seen — who 
was to sleep there for a hundred years. He 
told me, too, that she would be waked by a 
King’s son, whose bride she was destined to be.” 

When he heard this, the young Prince was 
on fire with eagerness. Without worrying 
about any difficulties, he believed the adventure 

c 


10 PERRAULTS FAIRY TALES 


as good as accomplished, and, urged forward 
by thoughts of love and of glory, resolved 
to see straight away what was to be found 
there. Hardly had he reached the outskirts 
of the wood, when all the great trees, the 
brambles and the briars, parted of their own 
accord to let him pass through. He marched 
onwards to the castle, which he saw at the end 
of a great avenue, down which he duly made 
his way. It surprised him a little, however, to 
notice that none of his companions had been 
able to follow him, because the trees closed 
together again as soon as he had gone past. 
But a young man — and a Prince and lover to 
boot — is ever valiant ! He did not allow him- 
self to pause in his path, and soon came to a 
large outer court. Here everything that he 
cast his eye upon was of a sort to make his 
blood run cold. Over all was a fearful silence. 
The semblance of death met his gaze on every 
side — nothing but the stretched-out bodies of 
men and animals, all of them to every appear- 
ance dead. It was not long, however, before 
he recognised by the bulbous noses and still 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


II 


red faces of the porters that they were only 
asleep. Their glasses, where some drops of 
wine still lingered, served to show that they 
must have gone to sleep in the very act of 
drinking. 

He passes a large court paved with marble. 
He mounts the staircase ; he enters the hall of 
the guards, who were drawn up in a row, their 
carbines on their shoulders, snoring for all 
they were worth. He goes through several 
rooms full of lords and ladies, all asleep, some 
upright, others sitting down. At last he enters 
a gilded room, where he saw upon a bed — the 
curtains of which were open at each side — the 
most beautiful sight that he had ever known, 
the figure of a young girl, who seemed to be 
about fifteen or sixteen years old. Her beauty 
seemed to shine with an almost unearthly 
radiance. He drew near in trembling wonder, 
and knelt down by her side. 

Just then, as the end of her enchantment 
was come, the Princess woke, and looking at 
him with a glance more tender than a moment’s 
acquaintance would seem to warrant, “ Is it 


12 


PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


you, my Prince?” said she. “How long you 
have kept me waiting ! ” The Prince, charmed 
with these words, and still more with the 
manner in which they were spoken, did not 
know how to express his joy. He assured her 
that he loved her more than himself. They 
did not use any fine phrases, these two, but 
they were none the less happy on that account. 
Where love is, what need of eloquence ? He 
was more at a loss than she, and small wonder! 
She had had plenty of time to think over what 
she was going to say 1 Anyhow, they talked 
together for four hours, and they had not even 
then said half of what was in their hearts. 
“Can it be, beautiful Princess,” said the Prince, 
looking at her with eyes that told a thousand 
things more than tongue could utter, “ can it 
be that some kindly fate ordained that I should 
be born expressly for you? Can it be that 
these beautiful eyes only open for me — that 
all the Kings of the earth, with all their power, 
could not do what my love has done?” “ Yes, 
my dear Prince,” replied the Princess ; “ I knew 
at first sight that we were born for each other. 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


13 


It is you that I saw, that I talked with, that I 
loved, all through my long sleep. It was with 
your image that the Fairy filled my dreams. 
I knew that he who would come to free me 
from my spell would be lovelier than love 
itself ; that he would love me more than his 
own life; and directly you came to me, I 
recognized him in you.” 

In the meantime, everybody in the palace 
had woken up at the same moment as the 
Princess. Each began worrying about his or 
her duties, and as they were not all lovers, 
they began to remember that it was a long time 
since they had had anything to eat, and that 
they were ready to die with hunger. The 
lady-in-waiting, as famished as the rest, grew 
impatient, and called to the Princess that 
supper was ready. The Prince helped the 
Princess to get up. She was fully and very 
magnificently dressed ; but he was careful not 
to remind her that her ruff and farthingale 
were after the fashion of his grandmother’s 
time. She was none the less beautiful for 
that. 


14 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

They passed into a saloon with mirrors all 
round the walls, and there they had supper. 
The musicians, with fiddles and hautboys, 
played some old pieces of music, excellent in 
their way, though a hundred years had gone 
by since they were heard last. After supper, 
without losing any time, the chief chaplain 
married the Prince and Princess in the chapel, 
and they retired to rest. They slept little. 
The Princess, to be sure, after her hundred 
years, had no great need of sleep, and as soon 
as morning broke the Prince left her, and 
returned to the town, for he knew the King 
his father would be growing anxious about him. 

The Prince told him that, when hunting, he 
had been lost in the forest, had spent the night 
in a charcoal-burner’s hut, and had made his 
supper of black bread and cheese. The King 
his father, who was an easy-going fellow, 
believed him; but the Queen his mother 
would not be so easily persuaded. She noticed 
that the Prince was always going hunting, and 
seemed always to have some excuse or other 
ready for staying away several days ; and she 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


15 


had a shrewd suspicion that he had a sweet- 
heart somewhere or other. She often tried 
to get him to tell her all about it by hinting 
that he should be contented with life at the 
palace ; but he never dared trust her with his 
secret. He feared her, although he loved her. 
For she came of a family of ogresses, and the 
King had only married her for her wealth. It 
used even to be whispered at the court that 
she herself had all the instincts of an ogress, 
and that when she saw any little children 
passing by she had to hold herself back to 
keep from rushing at them. So the Prince 
thought it best not to tell her anything at all. 
For two years he continued seeing his beloved 
Princess in secret, and he loved her always 
more and more. The air of mystery about it 
all made him fall in love with her afresh each 
time he saw her, and homely joys did not 
lessen the warmth of his passion. 

So when the King his father was dead, and 
he saw himself master, he declared his mar- 
riage publicly, and went in full state to visit 
the Queen his wife in her castle. It was with 


i6 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


all possible pomp and ceremony that he now 
made his entry into what was, after all, the old 
capital of the country. 

Some time after he had become King, the 
Prince went to make war upon his neighbour, 
the Emperor Cantalabutte. He left the manage- 
ment of the kingdom in the hands of the Queen 
his mother, and told her to be kind to the 
young Queen, whom he loved all the more 
since she had brought him two pretty children 
— a girl and a boy — whom he called Dawn and 
Day, because they were so beautiful. The 
King was to be away at the war all the summer, 
and no sooner had he gone than the Queen- 
mother sent her daughter-in-law and the chil- 
dren to a country-house in the woods, where 
she could more easily satisfy her horrible 
craving. She went there herself some days 
afterwards, and said one evening to her 
steward, “ Master Simon, to-morrow I mean 
to eat little Dawn for my dinner.” “ Oh, 
madame ! ” says the steward. “ I wish it,” 
replies the Queen-mother, in the tones of an 
ogress, hungry for fresh young victims. 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


17 


The poor man, seeing that it would be no 
use trying to thwart an ogress, took his big 
knife and went up to little Dawn’s room. She 
was just four years old, and she ran to him, 
laughing and skipping, and threw her arms 
round his neck, and asked him if he had 
brought her some sweetstuff. The knife fell 
from his hands, and he went to the yard, and 
cut the throat of a little lamb instead. This 
he served up with some sauce, which was so 
delightful that the Queen-mother vowed she 
had never tasted anything better in her life. 
In the meantime he carried off little Dawn, 
and gave her to his wife, who hid her in their 
own quarters at the bottom of the yard. 

About a week afterwards, the wicked Queen- 
mother said to her steward, “ Master Simon, 
I want to eat little Day for my supper.” He 
did not reply at all, but, resolving to deceive 
her again, went to look for little Day, and 
found him with a tiny foil in his hand, with 
which he was pretending to fence a huge ape. 
He was only three years old. The steward 
carried the boy to his wife, who hid him with 

p 


i8 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


little Dawn ; and he served up instead to the 
wicked Queen-mother a tender little kid, which 
she found admirable fare. So all was well, so 
far as that was concerned; but one evening 
the wicked old Queen called out in a terrible 
voice, “ Master Simon ! Master Simon ! ” He 
went to her immediately. “To-morrow," said 
she, “ I want to eat my daughter-in-law." 
Then at last Master Simon despaired of being 
still able to hoodwink the old ogress. The 
young Queen was now some twenty years old, 
without counting the hundred years that she 
had slept. How should he get an animal to 
replace her? He decided that there was no- 
thing for it. To save his own life, he must 
cut the young Queen’s throat, and he went up 
to her room determined to finish the business 
there and then. Working himself up into a 
suitable frenzy, he entered the young Queen’s 
room. He did not wish, however, to take her 
altogether by surprise ; so with great respect 
he told her of the orders he had received from 
the Queen-mother. “ Kill me ! kill me ! ’’ said 
she, offering him her neck ; “ fulfil the com- 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


19 


mand that has been given you. I shall only 
be going to see my children again — my poor 
children, whom I loved so well ! ” She be- 
lieved them dead, as they had been taken 
away without anything having been said to her. 

“ No, no, madame ! ” replied poor Master 
Simon, his heart softening, “ you shall not die. 
You shall go to see your dear children again ; 
but it shall be in my house, where I am keep- 
ing them in hiding. I will trick the old Queen 
once more. I will make her eat a young hind 
in your place.” He took her without more 
ado to his wife’s room, where he left her clasp- 
ing her children in her arms and crying with 
them, and went to prepare the hind, which 
the ogress ate for her supper with just as much 
gusto as if it had indeed been the young Queen. 
She was, in fact, quite delighted over her own 
cruelty, and had made up her mind to tell the 
King when he came back that some ravenous 
wolves had eaten his wife and his two children. 

One evening, while the old Queen was 
roaming about the courts and yards of the 
castle to see if she could sniff out some fresh 


20 


PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


dainty, she heard in one of the back rooms 
little Day, who was crying because his mother 
was going to whip him for being naughty. She 
also heard little Dawn asking forgiveness for 
her brother. The ogress recognized the voices 
of the young Queen and her children. Furious 
at having been duped, she commanded — in that 
terrible voice of hers that frightened everybody — 
that on the very next morning a huge tub should 
be brought into the middle of the court. It 
should be filled with toads, vipers, adders, and 
all sorts of reptiles, and the young Queen and 
her children. Master Simon, his wife, and 
servant were all to be thrown in together. 
They were to be brought thither — so the old 
Queen commanded — with their hands tied 
behind their backs. 

They were already there — the executioners 
stood in readiness to throw them into the tub 
— when the young Queen asked that at least 
she should be allowed to bid her children 
farewell, and the ogress, wicked as she was, 
consented. “Alas, alas!” cried the poor 
Princess, “must I die so young? It is true 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


21 


that I have been a good while in the world, 
but I have slept a hundred years, and surely 
that ought not to count ! What will you say, 
what will you do, my poor Prince, when you 
come back, and find that your little Day, who 
is so sweet, and your little Dawn, who is so 
pretty, are there no longer to throw their little 
arms round your neck, and that even I myself 
am no longer there to greet you ? If I weep, 
it is your tears that I shed. Perhaps — I dread 
to think it — you will take vengeance for our 
fate upon yourself! As for you, miserable 
wretches, who do an ogress’s bidding, the 
King will have you put to death — burnt to 
death on a slow fire.” The ogress, when she 
heard these words — which went so far beyond 
a mere farewell — was transported with rage, 
and cried, “ Executioners, do your duty, and 
throw this babbler into the tub 1 ” They there 
and then approached the Queen, and took hold 
of her by her dress ; but, just at that moment, 
the King, whom no one expected to arrive so 
early, came riding into the court. He had come 
post-haste ; and he asked, in his astonishment. 


22 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


what was the meaning of this horrible sight. 
No one dared to tell him ; when the ogress, 
maddened at seeing the course events had 
taken, threw herself head foremost into the 
tub, and was gobbled up in an instant by the 
dreadful creatures she had ordered to be put 
there. The King did not allow himself to 
be grieved over-much, although she was his 
mother. He soon found consolation in his 
beautiful wife and his children. 


THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 


23 


MORAL 

Many a girl has waited long 
For a husband brave or strong ; 

But I’m sure I never met 

Any sort of woman yet 

Who could wait a hundred years, 

Free from fretting, free from fears. 

Now, our story seems to show 
That a century or so. 

Late or early, matters not ; 

True love comes by fairy-lot. 

Some old folk will even say 
It grows better by delay. 

Yet this good advice, I fear. 

Helps us neither there nor here. 
Though philosophers may prate 
How much wiser ’tis to wait. 

Maids will be a-sighing still — 

Young blood must when young blood 
will! 












She met a rascally old Wolf 


Little Red-Riding-Hood 

O NCE Upon a time there was a little village 
girl, the prettiest ever seen. Her mother 
doted on her, and her grandmother doted still 
more. This worthy old lady had made her a 
little riding-hood of red cloth, which looked so 
pretty on her, that everyone called her Little 
Red-Riding-Hood. 

One day her mother had been cooking, and 
had been making some girdle-cakes, and said 
to her, “ Go and see how your grandmother is, 
for they say she has not been at all well lately. 
You can take her a cake and this little pot of 
butter.” Little Red-Riding-Hood started off 
there and then to go to her grandmother’s 
cottage, which was in a neighbouring village. 
As she was going through the wood, she met a 
rascally old wolf, who wanted very much to eat 
her. But he did not dare, because of some 
wood-cutters who were in the forest. He 
asked her where she was going. The poor 


26 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


child, who did not know how dangerous it was 
to stop and talk to a wolf, said to him, “ I am 
going to see my grandmother, and to take her 
a cake, with a little pot of butter, which my 
mother is sending her.” “ Does she live a long 
way off?” asked the Wolf. “Oh, yes,” she 
answered, “it is past the mill that you see 
down there, and down and down until you 
come to the first house in the village.” “ Oh, 
is that so?” said the Wolf. “ I should like to 
go and see her too. Suppose I go by this road 
and you go by that road, and we’ll see which 
of us gets there first.” 

The Wolf ran as hard as he could down the 
shorter road, and the little girl went by the 
longer; and she wasted a good deal of time, 
too, chasing butterflies and making nosegays 
of all the pretty flowers that she came across. 

The Wolf soon came to the grandmother’s 
cottage. He gave a “knock — knock” at the 
door. “Who is there?” “It is your grand- 
daughter, Little Red-Riding-Hood,” said the 
Wolf, in a feigned voice, “ I am bringing you 
a cake and a little pot of butter, which mother 


LITTLE RED-RIDING-HOOD 27 

has sent you.” The old grandmother, who was 
in bed, not being quite well, cried out, “ Pull 
the latch-pin, and the bobbin will fall.” The 
Wolf pulled the latch-pin, and the door opened. 
He threw himself upon the poor old woman, 
and gobbled her up in next to no time, for he 
had eaten nothing for three days. Then he 
shut the door, and went and lay on the grand- 
mother’s bed, waiting for Little Red-Riding- 
Hood. After a while, she came and gave a 
“knock — knock” at the door. “Who is 
there?” Little Red-Riding-Hood was fright- 
ened at first when she heard the Wolf’s rough 
voice, but thinking that her grandmother had 
a cold, replied, “ It is your granddaughter. 
Little Red-Riding- Hood. I am bringing you 
a cake and a little pot of butter, which mother 
has sent you.” The Wolf then cried out, trying 
to soften his voice a little, “ Pull the latch-pin, 
and the bobbin will fall.” Little Red-Riding- 
Hood pulled the latch-pin, and the door 
opened. 

On seeing her come in, the Wolf hid him- 
self in the bed, and said to her from beneath 


28 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


the bed-clothes, “ Put the cake and the little 
pot of butter on the top of the bin, and come 
and lie down with me.” Little Red-Riding- 
Hood took off her things and got into the bed, 
and was very much astonished to see how 
funny her grandmother looked in her night- 
dress. “Grandmother,” said she, “what great 
big arms you have ! ” “All the better to hug you 
with, my dear.” “ Grandmother, what great big 
legs you have ! ” “All the better to run with, 
my child.” “ Grandmother, what big ears you 
have ! ” “All the better to hear with, my child.” 
“ Grandmother, what big eyes you have ! ” “ All 
the better to see you with, my child.” “ Grand- 
mother, what big teeth you have.” “They are 
to eat you with ! ” said the Wolf, and, with the 
very words, he threw himself upon Little Red- 
Riding-Hood, and ate her. 


LITTLE RED-RIDING-HOOD 


MORAL 

Little girls, this seems to say, 
Never stop upon your way. 

Never trust a stranger-friend ; 

No one knows how it will end. 

As you’re pretty, so be wise ; 
Wolves may lurk in every guise. 
Handsome they may be, and kind. 
Gay, or charming — never mind ! 
Now, as then, ’tis simple truth — 
Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth 



Bluebeard 


O NCE upon a time there was a man who 
had beautiful houses both in town and 
country, gold and silver plate, embroidered 
furniture, and gilded carriages, but he had one 
misfortune. His beard was blue. This made 
him so ugly and so terrible, that there was not 
a woman — whether maid or matron — who did 
not shrink from him. 

One of his neighbours, a lady of quality, had 
two exquisitely beautiful daughters. He asked 
for one of them in marriage, leaving to their 
mother the choice as to which it should be. 
They both thoroughly disliked the prospect, 
and each handed him over to the other, neither 
of them being able to make up her mind to 
take a man who had a blue beard. What was 
most unpleasant of all, was that he had already 
married several wives, and no one knew what 
had become of these wives. 

To improve the acquaintance, Bluebeard 


32 


PERRAULTS FAIRY TALES 


invited the two daughters, together with their 
mother, three or four of their best friends, and 
some other young people, to one of his country 
houses, where they stayed a whole week. 
They had a glorious time — walks, hunting and 
fishing parties, dances, banquets, and all sorts 
of merrymakings. What with the mad pranks 
they used to play, they hardly had time to 
sleep, and, indeed, all went so well, that the 
younger daughter began to forget that the 
master of the house had a blue beard at all. 
She found him, in fact, a very pleasant fellow, 
and, immediately on their return to town, they 
were married. 

At the end of a month, Bluebeard told his 
wife that he was obliged to go away for six 
weeks at least on important business. He told 
her to deny herself nothing that would make 
the time pass pleasantly during his absence. 
He said that she might ask all her friends and 
take them away with her into the country if she 
wished, and that she was still the dearest thing 
to him in all the world. “ Here,” said he, “are 
the keys of the two great lumber-rooms ; here 


BLUEBEARD 


33 


are those of the gold and silver plate that is 
not used every day; here are those of the 
safes, where my gold and silver is, and those 
of the caskets that hold my jewels, and here is 
the master-key to all the state-rooms. As for 
this small key here, it is the key of the little 
room at the end of the long gallery on the 
ground-floor. Open everything, go every- 
where ; but this little room I forbid you enter. 
Remember, I have warned you ! If by any 
chance you do open it, my anger will stop at 
nothing.” 

She promised to do exactly as he had told 
her in everything, and, after kissing her good- 
bye, he got into his carriage and drove off 
upon his journey. 

The neighbours and friends did not wait to 
be asked to come to visit the young bride, such 
was their impatience to see all the riches of 
the house. They had not dared to come while 
the husband was there, being frightened of 
his blue beard. They went all over the place 
— the rooms, the cupboards, the wardrobes — 
and each thing that they saw seemed more 


34 


PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


beautiful than the last. They went up to the 
lumber-rooms where the furniture was stored, 
and could not admire too much the countless 
beautiful tapestries, the beds, cabinets, sofas, 
candlesticks, tables, and mirrors, where one 
could see oneself from head to foot, some of 
them with frames of crystal, some of silver, 
and some of silver-gilt, all more beautiful and 
magnificent than anything they had seen before. 
They could not cease belauding and envying 
the good fortune of their friend. She, how- 
ever, for her part, was quite bored with looking 
at all these riches, such was her impatience to 
go and open the little room on the ground 
floor. 

So overwhelmed with curiosity was she, that 
she did not scruple even to leave her guests, 
and to run downstairs by a little back staircase, 
so hurriedly, that she nearly broke her neck 
two or three times. When she came to the 
door of the little room, she stopped for a 
while, thinking over her husband’s warning, 
and wondering if any harm would come to her 
if she disobeyed. But the temptation was too 


BLUEBEARD 


35 


strong for her to fight against. She took the 
key and, with trembling hand, opened the door 
of the little room. 

At first she saw nothing, because the windows 
were shut. After some moments, she began to 
see that the floor was all covered with clotted 
blood, while ranged along the walls were the 
dead bodies of several women. (These were 
all the wives whom Bluebeard had married, 
and whose throats he had cut one after the 
other.) She almost died of fright, and the key 
of the little room, which she had just taken 
out of the lock, fell from her hand. After 
having recovered her senses somewhat, she 
picked up the key, shut the door, and went to 
her room to tidy herself up ; but she was so 
nervous that she could not put anything right. 

She had noticed that the key was stained 
with blood, and she wiped it two or three 
times, but the blood would not go. In vain 
she washed it and rubbed it with sand and 
with grit ; the blood was still there, for this 
was a magic key, and nothing on earth would 
make it quite clean, When the blood w^s 


36 PERRAULTS FAIRY TALES 

taken off from one side, it came back on the 
other. 

Bluebeard returned from his journey that 
very same evening. He said that, whilst on 
the road, he had received some letters, which 
told him that the matter on which he had been 
called away had been already settled in his 
favour. His wife did all she could to make 
him believe that she was delighted he was 
back so soon. 

On the next day he asked for the keys, and 
she gave them to him, but with so trembling a 
hand, that it was quite easy for him to guess 
everything that had happened. “ How is it,” 
said he to her, “that the key of the little room 
is not with the others?” “I must have left it 
upstairs on my table,” she answered. “Let me 
have it by and by,” said Bluebeard, “without 
fail.” 

After putting him off several times, she had 
at last to give him the key. Bluebeard looked 
at it carefully, and then said to his wife, “Why 
is there blood on this key?” “I don’t know,” 
replied the poor woman, pale as death. “So 



->•1 





I <! 


Sister Anne climbed to the top of the Tower 


BLUEBEARD 


37 


you wanted to go into the little room, did you ? 
Very well then, madam, you shall go there, 
and take your place by the side of those other 
ladies that you saw.” 

She threw herself at her husband’s feet, 
weeping and asking his pardon, and with every 
sign of repentance for not having obeyed him. 
Beautiful and grief-stricken as she was, she 
would have softened a rock. But harder than 
any rock was the heart of Bluebeard. “You 
must die,” said he, “ and that immediately ! ” 
“Since I must die,” she replied, looking at 
him with eyes bathed in tears, “ grant me a 
little time to pray.” “ I will give you a quarter 
of an hour,” answered Bluebeard; “not a 
moment more.” 

When she was alone she called her sister, 
and said to her, “ Sister Anne ” — for that was 
her name — “ go up to the top of the tower, I 
implore you, and see if my brothers are not 
coming. They promised to come and see me 
to-day. And if you see them, make signs to 
them to hurry.” Sister Anne climbed to the 
top of the tower, and the poor wife in an 


38 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


agony cried every now and then, “ Anne, sister 
Anne, do you not see them coming ? ” Sister 
Anne answered her, “ I see nothing but the 
green grass and the parching sun.” 

Meanwhile, holding in his hand a great 
cutlass, Bluebeard shouted as loud as he could 
to his wife, “ Come down quickly, or I will 
fetch you myself ! ” “ Give me a moment 

more, I beseech you ! ” replied his wife ; and 
at the same time in a low voice she called, 
“Anne, sister Anne, can you see nothing 
coming?” Sister Anne replied, “I can see 
nothing but the green grass and the parching 
sun.” 

“ Come down quickly, or I will fetch you 
myself ! ” roared Bluebeard. “ I am coming,” 
answered his wife, and then she cried, “Anne, 
sister Anne, can you see nothing?” “I see,” 
replied sister Anne, “a great cloud of dust 
coming from over there.” “Is it my brothers ?” 
“ Alas ! no, sister ; it is only a flock of sheep.” 
“Will you not come down?” bellowed Blue- 
beard. “Wait just a moment,” replied his 
wife, and then she cried, “Anne, sister Anne, 


BLUEBEARD 


39 


can you see nothing?” “ I see,” she answered, 
“ two horsemen coming from over there, but 
they are a long way off as yet. God be 
praised ! ” she exclaimed a moment later, “ they 
are my brothers ! I am signalling to them, as 
well as I can, to make haste.” 

Bluebeard was now shouting so loudly that 
the whole house shook. The poor wife went 
down, and threw herself at his feet, weeping 
and dishevelled. “ It’s no use,” said Blue- 
beard, “ you must die ! ” Then, holding her 
by her hair with one hand, and with the other 
brandishing his cutlass in the air, he was just 
going to cut her head off. The poor wife, 
turning towards him, and looking up at him 
with appealing eyes, pleaded for yet a little 
minute’s respite. “ No, no,” said he ; “ com- 
mend yourself to God ;” and, lifting his arm . . . 
At this very moment there was such a banging 
at the door, that Bluebeard stopped short all 
of a sudden. The door was burst open, and 
there rushed in two horsemen, who, sword in 
hand, ran straight at Bluebeard. 

He recognized that they were his wife’s 


40 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


brothers — one of them a dragoon and the 
other a musketeer. Without more ado he 
took to his heels and tried to escape, but the 
two brothers followed him up so close that 
they caught him before he could reach the 
steps outside. They pierced him through and 
through with their swords, and left him dead. 
The poor wife was almost as dead as her hus- 
band, and had not the strength even to get up 
and embrace her brothers. 

It turned out that Bluebeard had no heirs, 
so his wife remained mistress of all his wealth. 
She used part of it as a dowry for her sister 
Anne on her marriage with a young nobleman 
who had long loved her ; with another part 
she bought captains’ commissions for her two 
brothers ; and with the rest she herself married 
an honest gentleman, who soon made her forget 
the bad time she had passed through with 
Bluebeard. 


BLUEBEARD 


MORAL 

Ladies, you should never pry, — 
You’ll repent it by and by ! 

’Tis the silliest of sins ; 

Trouble in a trice begins. 

There are, surely — more’s the woe 
Lots of things you need not know. 
Come, forswear it now and here — 
Joy so brief, that costs so dear ! 


ANOTHER MORAL 

You can tell this tale is old 
By the very way it’s told. 

Those were days of derring-do ; 
Man was lord, and master too. 
Then the husband ruled as king. 
Now it’s quite a different thing; 
Be his beard what hue it may — 
Madam has a word to say ! 


1 


1 


I 

I 


I 


! 

(. 

I 



Puss in Boots 


MILLER once had nothing else to leave 



^ ^ to his three children but his mill, his 
donkey, and his cat. The sharing was easily 
arranged — no solicitor or attorney had to be 
called in. Their fees would soon have eaten 
up all the little patrimony. The eldest took 
the mill, the second took the donkey, and the 
third had to be content with the cat. The last 
of the three was quite disconsolate over having 
got so poor a share. “ My brothers,” said he, 
“ can join forces and make a decent livelihood ; 
but as for me, when I have eaten my cat, and 
made a muff of the skin, I shall just have to 
die of hunger.” The Cat, who had heard him 
talking, though all unbeknown, said to him 
with a sedate and serious air, “ Don’t worry, 
master ! You have only to give me a sack, and 
make me a pair of top-boots so that I can walk 
through the brushwood, and you will see that 
I am not such a bad bargain as you think.” 

Although the Cat’s young master did not lay 


44 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

great stock by the notion, he had seen his 
comrade achieve such feats of suppleness and 
cunning in catching rats and mice — as when 
he would hang by his feet, or hide amongst the 
flour to give his final spring — that he was not 
altogether without hope of turning it to some 
purpose in his trouble. 

When the Cat had got what he asked for, 
he pulled on the boots himself, and, to be sure, 
he made a brave show in them ! He then put 
his sack over his shoulder, and, taking the 
strings between his two front paws, went to a 
warren where he knew there were any number 
of rabbits. He put some bran and some sow- 
thistles in his sack, and, stretching himself out 
as if he were dead, he waited until some young 
rabbit, less experienced than the others in the 
wiles of the world, should nose his way into 
the sack to eat what had been put there. 

Hardly had he lain down, when his design 
was fulfilled. A silly young rabbit crept into 
the sack, and Master Puss pulled the strings as 
quickly as might be, caught him, and killed 
him without mercy. 


A SILLY YOUNG RaBBIT CREPT INTO THE SaCK 










PUSS IN BOOTS 


45 


In the full pride of his achievement, the Cat 
went to the palace of the King, and asked to 
see him. He was shown into his Majesty’s 
room. As he came in, the Cat made a deep 
bow to the King, and said, “ Sire, here is a 
rabbit which the Marquis of Carabas (this was 
the name he chose to give his master) has given 
me to present to you on his behalf.” “Tell 
your master,” replied the King, “ that I thank 
him, and accept his gift with pleasure.” 

Another time he lay in the corn, keeping his 
sack open, and when two partridges had gone 
into it, he pulled the strings and caught them 
both. Then he went to present them to the 
King, as he had done the rabbit. The King 
received the partridges with still greater 
pleasure, and gave the Cat a little present in 
return. 

The Cat continued doing this for two or 
three months, taking all sorts of game to the 
King on his master’s behalf. One day he found 
out that the King would be going to take the 
air by the riverside with his daughter, the most 
beautiful princess in the world. So he said to 


46 PERRAULT'S FAIRY TALES 


his master, “ If you take my advice, your for- 
tune is made. You have only to bathe in the 
river, at a place that I will show you, and 
then leave the rest to me.” 

The Marquis of Carabas did as his Cat 
advised, without knowing what it was all for. 
While he was bathing, the King came along, 
and the Cat began to cry with all his might, 
“ Help ! help ! the Marquis of Carabas is 
drowning ! ” On hearing this cry, the King put 
his head out of the carriage-window, and recog- 
nised the Cat who had brought him game so 
often. He ordered that his guards should go 
to the help of the Marquis of Carabas. 

While they were dragging the poor Marquis 
out of the water, the Cat came up to the car- 
riage, and told the King that, while his master 
was bathing, some thieves had come and car- 
ried off his clothes, although he had cried 
“ Stop thief ! ” as loud as he could. The artful 
puss had hidden them under a large stone ! 

The King thereupon ordered the officers of 
his wardrobe to go and find out some fine 
clothes for the Marquis of Carabas. The King 


PUSS IN BOOTS 


47 


himself showed him all possible courtesy, and 
as the fine clothes which had just been given 
him showed off his figure to advantage (for he 
was a handsome, well-built young fellow), the 
King’s daughter took quite a fancy to him. 
Indeed, the Marquis of Carabas had but 
thrown a few glances, half-respectful, half- 
tender, in her direction, before she was over 
head and ears in love with him. 

The King asked him to come into his car- 
riage, and join them in their drive. The Cat, 
delighted to find his plans succeeding so well, 
went on before, and meeting some peasants 
who were mowing a meadow, said to them, 
“ Look here, my fine mowers, if you don’t tell 
the King that the meadow that you mow 
belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you will be 
chopped into little bits like mincemeat.” 

Sure enough, the King asked the mowers 
whose meadow it was that they mowed. “ It 
belongs to the Marquis of Carabas,” they an- 
swered with one accord, for the Cat’s threat 
had frightened them. 

“ You have a fine estate here,” said the King 


48 PERRAULT'S FAIRY TALES 

to the Marquis of Carabas. “ As you see, sire," 
replied the Marquis, “ this particular meadow 
always yields me a rich hay-crop." 

Master Puss, who kept on in front, met some 
reapers, and said to them, “ Look here, my fine 
reapers, if you don’t say that all this corn 
belongs to the Marquis of Carabas, you will be 
chopped into little pieces like mincemeat." 
The King passed by a moment after, and asked 
who was the owner of all this corn that he saw. 
“ It belongs to the Marquis of Carabas,” replied 
the reapers ; and the King again complimented 
the Marquis. The Cat, going still in front of 
the carriage, told everyone he met in the same 
way to say the same thing, and the King was 
amazed at the Marquis of Carabas’ wealth. 

Master Puss arrived at last at a beautiful 
castle, whose owner was an Ogre, the richest 
ever known, for all the country that the King 
had passed through was really the castle’s 
domain. The Cat, who had taken pains to 
find out who this Ogre was, and what he 
could do, asked to speak with him, saying that 
he could not think of passing so near the castle 


PUSS IN BOOTS 


49 


without giving himself the honour of paying 
his respects. 

The Ogre received him as civilly as an Ogre 
can, and asked him to sit down. “ They tell 
me,” said the Cat, “that you have the power 
of changing into all sorts of animals — that you 
could, for example, turn yourself into a lion, 
or an elephant.” “That is true,” replied the 
Ogre, gruffly; “and to prove it, you shall see 
me change into a lion.” The Cat was so 
frightened to see a lion in front of him, that 
he scrambled on to the roof as quickly as he 
could, and not without difficulty, by reason 
of his boots, which were not of much use for 
walking on the tiles. 

Some time after, the Cat, seeing that the 
Ogre had quitted his first shape, came down, 
and confessed that he had had a terrible fright. 
“They have told me, too,” said the Cat, “but 
I can hardly bring myself to believe it yet, that 
you have also the power to take the form of 
the very smallest animals — that you could, for 
example, change yourself into a rat or a mouse. 
I must say it seems to me quite impossible.” 

F 


50 PERRAULTS FAIRY TALES 


“Impossible!” retorted the Ogre; “you shall 
see ! ” At the same time he changed himself 
into a mouse, which ran about on the floor. 
The Cat no sooner saw this than he pounced 
upon the mouse, and ate it. 

Meanwhile the King, who had seen in the 
distance the Ogre’s castle, wished to go inside. 
The Cat, who heard the rumbling of the car- 
riage going over the drawbridge, ran to the 
front of the castle, and said to the King, “Your 
Majesty is welcome to the Marquis of Carabas’ 
castle ! ” “ How now, my dear Marquis 1 ” ex- 
claimed the King ; “ is this castle yours, too ? 
Certainly nothing could be more beautiful than 
this courtyard and these buildings all around. 
I should very much like to go in.” 

The Marquis gave his hand to the young 
Princess, and following the King, who went 
up first, they entered a great hall, where they 
found a magnificent feast. This the Ogre had 
prepared for some friends who were coming 
to see him that very day, but who had not 
dared to venture in, knowing that the King 
was there. The King, charmed with the 


PUSS IN BOOTS 


51 


personality of the Marquis of Carabas, as also 
was his daughter — who was, as we have seen, 
already madly in love with him — and noticing 
the vast wealth that he appeared to possess, 
said to him after having drunk a glass or two, 
“Would you care to be my son-in-law. Marquis ? 
It only rests with you ! ” The Marquis, with 
a profound bow, accepted the honour that the 
King had offered him, and that very day he 
married the Princess. The Cat became a great 
lord, and he never chased mice afterwards 
except in the way of sport. 


52 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


MORAL 

It’s a pleasant thing, I’m told, 

To be left a pile of gold. 

But there’s something better still. 

Never yet bequeathed by will. 

Leave a lad a stock of sense — 

Though with neither pounds nor pence — 
And he’ll finish, as a rule. 

Richer than the gilded fool. 

ANOTHER MORAL 

Can the heart of a Princess 
Yield so soon to borrowed dress ? 

So it seems — but wait a while — 

’Tis not all a tale of guile. 

He was young and straight of limb ; 

She was just the girl for him. 

He was brave, and she was fair. 

Tell me, when the right man’s there — 

Be he but a miller’s son — 

What Princess will not be won ? 


The Fairies 


O NCE upon a time there was a widow who 
had two daughters. The elder was so 
like her in face and disposition that to see her 
was to see the mother. Both mother and 
daughter were so proud and disagreeable that 
no one could live with them. The younger, 
who was the image of her father, was every- 
thing that is sweet and natural, and was, too, 
one of the prettiest girls ever seen. As every- 
one is fond of his own likeness, this mother 
doted on her elder daughter, and at the same 
time had a frightful hatred of the younger. 
She made her eat in the kitchen, and kept her 
always at work. 

Among other things, this poor girl had to 
go twice a day to draw water at least a good 
mile and a half from the cottage, and bring it 
back in a big pitcher full to the brim. One 
day, when she was at this fountain, a poor 
woman came to her, and asked if she might 


54 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

have a drink of water. “Yes, of course, 
grannie,” said the girl ; and rincing the pitcher 
as soon as she could, she drew some water 
from the best part of the fountain, and gave 
it her, holding the pitcher so that she could 
drink more easily. The old woman, having 
drunk the water, said to her, “You are so 
pretty, so good, and so kind that I cannot help 
giving you a fairy-gift” — for it was a Fairy, who 
had taken the shape of a poor village- woman 
just to see how far the girl’s good nature would 
go. “ I promise you, as my gift,” continued 
the Fairy, “ that at each word you speak either 
a flower or a precious stone will fly out of your 
mouth.” 

When the pretty daughter arrived at the 
cottage, her mother grumbled because she was 
so late in coming back from the fountain. 
“ Forgive me,” said the poor girl, “ for being 
so long.” As she said these words there flew 
out of her mouth two roses, two pearls, and 
two big diamonds. “What is this I see?” said 
the mother in astonishment. “ I do believe 
that pearls and diamonds are flying out of 


She drew some Water from the best part of 

THE Fountain 


















I 


THE FAIRIES 


55 


her mouth. How did it all come about, my 
daughter?” (This was the first time that she 
had ever owned her as daughter.) The poor 
girl told her in all simplicity everything that 
had happened to her, throwing out a regular 
shower of diamonds as she did so. “ Indeed,” 
said the mother, “ I must send my daughter 
along. Come, Fanny, do see what comes out of 
your sister’s mouth when she talks. Wouldn’t 
you like to have the same gift? Well, you 
have only to go and draw water from the foun- 
tain, and when a poor woman asks for a drink, 
give it her good-naturedly.” “ I should look 
a pretty sight,” replied the ugly daughter, 
“ going to the fountain ! ” “I wish you to go,” 
replied the mother, “ and that immediately.” 

She went, grumbling all the time. She took 
the prettiest silver flagon to be found in the 
cottage. She had no sooner arrived at the 
fountain, than a fine lady, magnificently dressed, 
came out of the wood and asked for a drink. 
It was the same Fairy who had appeared to 
her sister, but she had taken on the manner 
and dress of a princess, to see how far the 


56 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

ill-temper of this girl would go. “ Have I come 
all this way,” said the ugly cross-patch, “to 
give you .a drink of water ? Likely I should 
bring a silver flagon expressly for your lady- 
ship ! If it’s water you want, drink what you 
can get, that’s what I say!” “ You’re hardly 
kind,” said the Fairy, without allowing herself 
to get angry. “ Well, since you are so unoblig- 
ing, my gift to you shall be that at each word 
you speak there shall come out of your mouth 
either a snake or a toad.” 

Directly the mother saw her, she cried, “Well, 
daughter 1 ” “ Here 1 am, mother 1 ” answered 

the ugly daughter, throwing out two vipers 
and two toads. “ Heavens above 1 ” cried the 
mother; “what is this that I see? It is her 
sister who is the cause of it all. She shall pay 
for this ! ” — and she ran to give her a beating. 
The poor child took to flight, and hid herself 
in the neighbouring forest. The King’s son, 
who was coming back from the hunt, met her, 
and seeing how beautiful she was, asked her 
why she was all alone, and what it was that 
made her cry. “ Alas, sir, my mother has just 


THE FAIRIES 


57 


turned me out of doors.” The King’s son, 
who saw five or six pearls and as many dia- 
monds coming out of her mouth, asked her to 
tell him whence she came. She told him of 
the story of her adventure. The King’s son 
fell in love with her, and thinking that such a 
gift was worth more than any marriage dowry, 
took her to the palace of the King his father, 
where he married her. 

As for her sister, she became so hateful, that 
her own mother drove her from the house, and 
the unfortunate girl, after going hither and 
thither without finding anyone who was willing 
to receive her, went and died in a corner of 
the wood. 


58 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


MORAL 

Diamonds and rubies may 
Work some wonders in their way ; 
But a gentle word is worth 
More than all the gems on earth. 


ANOTHER MORAL 

Though — when otherwise inclined — 
It’s a trouble to be kind, 

Often it will bring you good 
When you’d scarce believe it could. 


Cinderella 


OR 

The Little Glass Slipper 

T here was once a nobleman who married, 
as his second wife, the proudest and 
most arrogant woman that anybody had ever 
seen. She had two daughters, who were just 
like her both in temper and everything else. 
The husband, on his side, had a little daughter 
whose sweetness and goodness were past com- 
pare. She was like her mother, who was the 
most charming woman in the whole world. 

The wedding was no sooner over than the 
step-mother began to make her ill-humour felt. 
She could not bear this child’s good qualities, 
which made her own daughters seem all the 
more hateful. She gave her all the dirtiest 
work to do in the house. It was she who 
cleaned the plate and the staircases, and who 
scrubbed out the step-mother’s bedroom, and 


6o PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


those, too, of her fine daughters. She herself 
had to sleep in a garret right at the top of the 
house, on a wretched mattress, while the sisters 
had rooms with inlaid floors, bedsteads of the 
very latest fashion, and looking-glasses where 
they could see themselves from head to foot. 
The poor girl bore it all patiently, and never 
dared to complain to her father, who would 
have scolded her, as his wife had a complete 
hold over him. 

When she had done her work, she would 
settle down in the chimney-corner and sit in 
the cinders, so that most of the people in the 
house called her the “ cinder-girl,” but the 
younger daughter, who was not so hard-hearted 
as the elder, called her “ Cinderella.” All the 
same, in spite of her wretched clothes, she 
was a hundred times more beautiful than her 
sisters could be, whatever finery they might 
put on. 

It happened that the King’s son gave a ball, 
to which he asked all the people of quality. 
Our two young ladies were also asked, for they 
cut a great figure in society. You should 


She was a hundred times more beautiful than 
HER Sisters could be • 















CINDERELLA 


6i 


have seen how busy they were, and how they 
enjoyed themselves, choosing what dresses 
would suit them best, and deciding how their 
hair should be done ! Here was more trouble 
for Cinderella, for it was she who had to iron 
her sisters’ linen, and starch their ruffles. 
They could talk of nothing but what they were 
going to wear. “ I shall put on my red velvet 
dress with the English trimmings,” said the 
elder. “ I,” said the younger, “ shall have my 
ordinary skirt, but I shall make up for it by 
putting on my mantle with the gold flowers 
and my bar of diamonds, which isn’t so bad, 
after all.” They sent out to find a tiring- 
woman to arrange their doubled coifs, and to 
buy patches from the worthy gossip who dealt 
m such things. They called Cinderella in to 
ask her advice, for she had good taste. Cin- 
derella gave them the best advice possible, and 
even offered to dress their hair, which they 
were glad to let her do. 

While she was dressing their hair, they said 
to her, “Cinderella, wouldn’t you just like to 
go to the ball ? ” “Ah, ladies, I fear you are 


62 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


laughing at me. My place is elsewhere ! ” 
“ You are right. People would laugh indeed 
if they saw a cinder-girl going to the ball ! ” 

Any other girl but Cinderella would have 
done their hair awry, but she was good-hearted, 
and did it just as well as it could be done. 
They were so transported with joy about it all 
that they did not eat anything for nearly two 
days. They broke more than a dozen laces 
trying to squeeze in their waists to make them 
more slender, and they were always in front 
of their looking-glass. 

At last the happy day arrived. They started 
off, and Cinderella followed them with her eyes 
as long as she could. When she could see 
them no longer, she sat down and cried. Her 
godmother, who saw her in tears, asked her 
what the trouble was. “I want. . . . I want. 
. . ." She was crying so bitterly that she could 
not finish the sentence. Her godmother, who 
was a Fairy, said to her, “You would like to 
go to the ball, isn’t that it?” “Alas, yes!” 
said Cinderella sighing. “ Ah well, if you 
will be a good girl,” said her godmother, 


CINDERELLA 


63 

“ I will see that you go.” She took her into 
her room, and said to her, “ Go into the 
garden, and bring me a pumpkin.” Cinderella 
went immediately and plucked the finest 
pumpkin that she could find, and brought it 
to her godmother, without being able to guess 
what possible use a pumpkin could be in 
helping her to go to the ball. Her godmother 
took it, and having taken out the inside and 
left only the rind, tapped it with her wand, 
and the pumpkin was changed directly into a 
beautiful coach, all gilded. 

Then she went to look at the mouse-trap, 
where she found six mice, all alive. She told 
Cinderella to lift the door of the trap a little, 
and as each mouse came out she gave it a 
stroke with her wand, and the mouse was 
instantly changed into a beautiful horse. So 
there was a fine equipage of six horses, all of 
a pretty dappled mouse-grey. 

The next trouble was to find a coachman. 
“ I will go and see,” said Cinderella, “if there 
isn’t some rat in the rat-trap. We could make 
a coachman of him.” “A good idea !” said 


64 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

the godmother. “ Go and see.” Cinderella 
brought her the rat-trap, where there were 
three large rats. The Fairy chose one out of 
the three because he had lordly whiskers, and 
touching him, changed him into a fat coach- 
man, with one of the loveliest moustaches 
anyone had ever seen. 

Then she said to her, “ Go into the garden. 
You will find six lizards there, behind the 
watering-pot. Bring them me.” She had no 
sooner brought them than the godmother 
changed them into six lackeys, who got up 
behind the coach with their gold-braided 
liveries, and held on there just as if they had 
never done anything else all their lives. 

The Fairy then said to Cinderella, “ See 
now, there’s something to go to the ball in ! 
Doesn’t that satisfy you?” “Yes, but how 
can I go in my ragged dress?” Her god- 
mother just touched her with her wand, and 
at the same time her clothes were changed 
into a dress of cloth of gold and silver, all 
bedizened with precious stones. She gave her 
then a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in 


CINDERELLA 


65 

the world. Thus apparelled, she got into the 
coach, but her godmother charged her, above 
everything, not to stay after midnight, warning 
her that, if she stayed a moment longer, the 
coach would become a pumpkin again, the 
horses mice, the lackeys lizards, and that her 
old clothes would take once more their original 
form. 

She promised her godmother that she would 
leave the ball before midnight without fail. 
She started off, quite beside herself with joy. 
The King’s son, who had been told that a 
great Princess was coming whom nobody 
knew, ran to receive her. He gave her his 
hand to help her down from the coach, and 
took her into the ball-room, where all the 
guests were gathered. There was sudden 
silence. Everybody stopped dancing. The 
violins played no more, so spell-bound was 
everyone at the sight of the unknown lady’s 
beauty. One only heard a confused murmur, 
“ Oh, how beautiful she is ! ” The King him- 
self, old as he was, could not take his eyes off 
her, and said in a low voice to the Queen that 

G 


66 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


it was a long time since he had seen anyone 
so graceful or with so winning an air. All the 
ladies took care to have a good look at her 
dress and the way she did her hair, so that 
they might manage something of the same sort 
the next day, if only they could find stuffs rich 
enough and craftsmen deft enough. 

The King’s son put her in the place of 
honour, and then he asked if he might dance 
with her. She danced with so much grace 
that the company admired her all the more. 
An extremely choice supper was provided, but 
the Prince could not eat any of it, so taken up 
was he with gazing at her. She went and sat 
near her sisters, and was as nice as nice could 
be. She made them share the oranges and 
the lemons that the Prince had given her, 
which astonished them very much, for they 
did not know her. 

While they were thus talking, Cinderella 
heard the clock strike a quarter to twelve. 
She immediately made a deep bow to the 
company, and went away as quickly as she 
could. Directly she got home, she went to 


CINDERELLA 67 

find her godmother, and having thanked her, 
said she would like to go to the ball again on 
the morrow, because the King's son had asked 
her. As she was telling her godmother every- 
thing that had happened at the ball, the two 
sisters knocked at the door. Cinderella went 
and opened it. “What a long time you have 
been ! " said she, yawning, rubbing her eyes, 
and stretching herself, as if she had only just 
woken up. As a matter of fact she had not 
had the slightest wish to sleep since they had 
gone off. “ If you had come to the ball,” said 
one of the sisters, “you wouldn’t have been 
dull there ! There came the most beautiful 
princess that could ever have been seen, and 
she was particularly nice to us, and gave us 
oranges and lemons.” 

Cinderella hardly knew what to do for joy. 
She asked the name of the Princess. They 
replied that no one knew, that the King’s son 
himself was taking all sorts of trouble to find 
out, and would give everything in the world to 
know who she was. Cinderella smiled and 
said, “ She was as beautiful as all that, was 


68 PERRAULTS FAIRY TALES 


she? How lucky you are. Would it be quite 
impossible for me to see her? Oh, Miss 
Javotte, do lend me your yellow dress — the 
one you wear every day!" “Indeed!" said 
Miss Javotte, “ fancy that ! Lend one’s dress 
to a dirty cinder-girl like you ! I should be 
mad to do such a thing." Cinderella was not 
a bit surprised at this refusal, and was even 
relieved by it, for it would have spoiled all her 
plans if her sister had really been willing to 
lend her the dress. 

On the morrow the two sisters were at the 
ball, and Cinderella too, but still more beauti- 
fully dressed than the time before. The King’s 
son was always at her side, and kept saying 
pretty things to her. The young lady herself 
enjoyed it all immensely, and quite forgot her 
godmother’s warning, so that the first stroke 
of midnight sounded when she thought it was 
only eleven o’clock. She got up, and ran off 
as lightly as a hind. The Prince followed, 
but could not catch her. She let fall one of 
her glass slippers, which the Prince picked 
up with tender care. Cinderella arrived home 

















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Nothing remained of her Magnificence save one 
OF HER LITTLE GlASS SlIPPERS 


CINDERELLA 


69 

very much out of breath, without coach, with- 
out lackeys, and in her own wretched clothes. 
Nothing remained of her magnificence save 
one of her little glass slippers, the brother of 
the one she had let fall. The guards at the 
palace gates were asked if they had seen a 
Princess go out. They said they had seen 
nobody save a very ill-clad girl, who looked 
more like a peasant than a lady. 

When the two sisters came back from the 
ball, Cinderella asked them if they had still 
enjoyed themselves, and if the beautiful lady 
had been there again. They said that she had, 
but that she had taken flight when midnight 
struck. She had been, too, in such haste, that 
she had let fall one of her little glass slippers, 
the prettiest in the world. The King’s son, 
they said, had picked it up ; he had done 
nothing else but look at it all through the rest 
of the ball, and was most assuredly in love 
with the beautiful creature to whom the little 
slipper belonged. 

They spoke true, for a day or two after, the 
King’s son caused it to be proclaimed, at the 


70 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


sound of the trumpet, that he would marry 
her — whoever she was — whose foot would fit 
the slipper. They began trying with the 
princesses, then with the duchesses, and the 
whole of the court, but it was no good. They 
brought it to the two sisters, who did all they 
possibly could to get their feet into the slipper, 
but they could not manage it. Cinderella, who 
was looking at them, and who recognised the 
slipper, said with a smile, “ Shall I see if it 
will do for me?” The sisters burst out laugh- 
ing, and made fun of her. The nobleman 
whose duty it was to try on the slipper, looked 
attentively at Cinderella, and seeing how 
beautiful she was, said it was quite fair, and 
that he had orders to try it on all girls. He 
made Cinderella sit down, and putting the 
slipper to her little foot, he saw that it slid on 
without the slightest difficulty, and fitted as if 
it had been made of wax. Great was the 
astonishment of the two sisters, but it was still 
greater when Cinderella drew from her pocket 
the other little slipper, which she put on her 
other foot. Just then, too, her godmother 


CINDERELLA 


71 


came on the scene, and touching Cinderella’s 
clothes with her wand, transformed them into 
a dress more magnificent than any of the 
others. 

Then the two sisters recognised in her the 
beautiful lady they had seen at the ball. They 
threw themselves at her feet, and asked pardon 
for all the ill-treatment they had made her 
suffer. Cinderella lifted them up, kissed them, 
and said that she forgave them with all her 
heart, and hoped they would love her always. 
She was then escorted to the young Prince’s 
palace, dressed just as she was. He found 
her more beautiful than ever, and, a few days 
after, he married her. Cinderella, who was as 
good as she was beautiful, asked her two sisters 
to come and stay at the palace, and made 
matches for them, that very day, with two 
great lords of the Court. 


72 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


MORAL 

Beauty is a treasure rare. 

Who complains of being fair? 

Yet there’s still a something more 
That good fairies have in store. 

’Tis that little gift called grace, 
Weaves a spell round form and face, 
Of each word makes magic, too. 
Lends a charm to all you do. 

This it was — and nothing less — 
Cinderella’s fairy dress ! 

And if you would learn the way 
How to get that gift to-day — 

How to point the golden dart 
That shall pierce the Prince’s heart — 
Ladies, you have but to be 
Just as kind and sweet as she ! 

ANOTHER MORAL 
Godmothers are useful things 
Even when without the wings. 
Wisdom may be yours and wit. 
Courage, industry, and grit — 

What’s the use of these at all. 

If you lack a friend at call ? 


Riquet of the Tuft 

T here was once a Queen who had a 
baby-son, so ugly and ill-shaped that they 
doubted for a long time if he was a human 
being at all. A Fairy who was there when he 
was born promised that this should not prevent 
him from proving a charming fellow, because 
he would be witty and clever. She added 
that by virtue of the fairy-gift she had given 
him, he would be able to make the woman he 
loved just as clever as himself. 

All this helped to console the poor Queen a 
little, who was very troubled at having brought 
into the world such an ugly little monkey. 
True it is, that no sooner had the child begun 
to talk, than he said a thousand pretty things. 
Everything that he did had something intelli- 
gent about it that charmed people. I forgot to 
say that he came into the world with a little 
tuft of hair on his head, so that they called 
him Riquet of the Tuft, for Riquet was his 
family name. 


74 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

At the end of seven or eight years the Queen 
of a neighbouring kingdom had two daughters. 
The first which came into the world was more 
beautiful than the day. The Queen was so 
overjoyed, that some feared it might do her 
harm. The same Fairy who had assisted at 
the birth of little Riquet of the Tuft was 
present, and to keep the Queen’s joy within 
bounds she declared that this little Princess 
would be quite without any cleverness at all 
— as dull-witted as she was beautiful. This 
grieved the Queen very much ; but an even 
worse sorrow was in store for her, for the 
second daughter that she had proved extremely 
ugly. “ Don’t take it so much to heart,” said 
the Fairy; “your daughter will make up for it 
in other ways, and she will be so clever that 
hardly anyone will notice her looks.” “ Heaven 
grant that may be so ! ” answered the Queen ; 
“but would it not be possible for the daughter 
who is so beautiful to be just the least little 
bit clever?” “I can do nothing for her, 
Madam, on the score of cleverness,” replied 
the Fairy; “but I can do everything where 


All this helped to console the poor Queen 












RIQUET OF THE TUFT 


75 


beauty is concerned, and as I should like to do 
all I can to satisfy you, I will grant her, as a 
fairy-gift, the power to make beautiful anyone 
who pleases her.” 

As these two Princesses grew older, their 
qualities grew with them, and everyone talked 
of the beauty of the elder and the cleverness 
of the younger. It is true that their faults also 
increased with age. The younger grew more 
and more ugly to look at, and the elder more 
and more stupid as the days went by. She 
would either make no answer to what people 
asked her, or she would say something silly. 
At the same time she was so clumsy that she 
could not put four pieces of china on a mantel- 
shelf without breaking one, nor drink a glass 
of water without spilling half of it all over her 
dress. 

Although beauty should be a great advantage 
to a girl, none the less the younger Princess 
outshone the elder in nearly all companies. 
At first everybody wanted to be near the 
beautiful sister, to see and to admire ; but, soon 
after, they sought out the witty one, to hear all 


76 ' PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

the pleasant things she had to say. It was 
astonishing that, in less than a quarter of an 
hour, the elder would have nobody about her, 
and everybody would be crowding round the 
younger. The elder, stupid as she was, noticed 
this, and would have given all her beauty with- 
out a pang of regret for half her sister’s wit. 
The Queen, with all her wisdom, could not 
help reproaching her sometimes for her 
stupidity, so that the poor Princess was ready 
to die with grief. 

One day, when she had gone into a wood 
to lament her misfortunes all alone, she saw 
coming along an ugly little man, very disagree- 
able-looking, but magnificently dressed. This 
was the young Prince, Riquet of the Tuft. He 
had fallen in love with her portraits, which had 
been sent all over the world, and had quitted 
his father’s kingdom to have the pleasure of 
seeing and talking to her. Delighted at meet- 
ing her thus alone, he accosted her with all 
possible respect and politeness. After he had 
paid the usual compliments, he noticed that 
she was very melancholy, and said to her, “ I 


RIQUET OF THE TUFT 


77 


cannot understand, Madam, how anyone so 
beautiful as you are could be as sad as you 
seem ; for though I can boast of having seen 
an infinite number of lovely women, I must 
confess that I remember none whose beauty 
even approached to yours.” “So I hear you 
say. Sir,” replied the Princess, and stopped 
there. “Beauty,” replied Riquet of the Tuft, 
“is so great a gift, that surely it should take 
precedence of all the others ! If one possessed 
it, I cannot think of anything that would be 
worth worrying about.” “I would rather,” 
said the Princess, “be as ugly as you and be 
clever, than have the beauty that I have and 
be as stupid as I am.” “There is nothing. 
Madam, which shows intelligence more truly 
than to believe yourself without it. One of its 
characteristics is that the more one has of it, 
the more conscious one is how much one 
lacks.” “ I don’t know anything about that,” 
said the Princess; “but I just know that I am 
stupid, and that it makes me so miserable that 
I want to die.” “If that is all that troubles 
you. Madam, I can easily put an end to your 


78 PERRAULTS FAIRY TALES 

sorrow.” “And how can you do that?” said 
the Princess. “I have the power, Madam,” 
said Riquet of the Tuft, “to give to the lady 
whom I love best as much cleverness as any- 
one can have. Since, Madam, you are that 
lady, it only rests with you to become as clever 
as can be, provided only that you are willing 
to marry me.” 

The Princess remained tongue-tied, and 
answered nothing. “I see,” replied Riquet of 
the Tuft, “that the offer perplexes you. I am 
not astonished at it. But I will give you a year 
to think it over.” The Princess had so little 
cleverness, and desired it so eagerly, that she 
thought the end of the year would never 
come ; so she accepted the proposal. She had 
no sooner promised Riquet of the Tuft that 
she would marry him on that day in the 
following year, than she felt all of a sudden as 
though she were quite a different person. She 
found herself able, with unbelievable ease, to 
say just what pleased him, and to say it with a 
fine manner, easy and natural. From that 
very moment she launched forth into a gallant 


RIQUET OF THE TUFT 


79 


and sustained talk with Riquet of the Tuft, 
and was so brilliant that Riquet of the Tuft 
began to suspect that he had given her more 
wit than he had kept for himself. 

When she returned to the palace, the whole 
court was at a loss to know what to think of 
this sudden and extraordinary change, for her 
talk was now as well-informed and witty as it 
was dull and foolish before. Everybody was 
more delighted than words could tell — except 
the younger sister, who was not very happy 
about it, because now, having no longer any 
mental advantage over her elder sister, she 
seemed merely an ugly fright by her side. 

The King followed her advice, and even 
went to her room sometimes to discuss state 
affairs. News of the change having got abroad, 
all the young princes of the neighbouring 
kingdoms came to see her with a view to 
courtship, and nearly all asked her hand in 
marriage. But she could not find any who 
were clever enough, and she listened to all 
without engaging herself to any one of them. 
However, there came one so powerful, so rich. 


8o PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


so witty, and so handsome, that she could not 
help feeling well-disposed towards him. Her 
father, seeing this, said to her that she was her 
own mistress in the choice of a husband, and 
that she had only to declare what was her 
will. The cleverer one is, the more difficult it 
becomes to make up one’s mind in these affairs. 
Thanking her father, she asked if he would 
give her time to think over it. 

So that she might meditate undisturbed over 
what she should do, she went by chance for a 
walk in the same wood where she had met 
Riquet of the Tuft. As she was walking in a 
profound reverie, she heard a confused noise 
under the stones, as of a crowd of people 
busily coming and going. Listening more 
attentively, she heard one of them say, “ Bring 
me that saucepan ! ” — another, “ Give me that 
kettle ! ” — another, “ Put some wood on the 
fire ! ” At the same time the ground opened, 
and she saw under her feet what looked like 
a great kitchen, full of cooks and scullions 
and everybody needed to prepare a magnificent 
banquet. There came out a band of twenty 


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RIQUET OF THE TUFT 


8i 


or thirty kitchen-folk, who went and planted 
themselves in a glade of the wood round a 
long table. There, with their larding-pins in 
their hands and their fox-tails over their ears, 
they all set to work in cadence, to the sound 
of a harmonious lilt. 

The Princess, astonished at this sight, asked 
them for whom they were working. “ It is. 
Madam,” replied the foremost of the band, 
“for Prince Riquet of the Tuft, who is to be 
married to-morrow.” The Princess, still more 
surprised than she had been, and remembering 
that a year had passed to that very day since 
she promised to marry Prince Riquet of the 
Tuft, felt quite thunderstruck. What had 
made her forget was that when she made the 
promise she was stupid, and in taking over 
the new mind that the Prince had given her 
she forgot all her old sillinesses. 

She had hardly gone thirty steps further in 
her walk, when Riquet of the Tuft presented 
himself to her, gay, magnificent, like a Prince 
on the way to his wedding. “ You see I am 
here, Madam,” said he, “ prompt to fulfil my 


H 


82 PERRAULT'S FAIRY TALES 


promise. You, too, are come, I doubt not, to 
fulfil yours, and in giving me your hand, to 
make me the happiest of men." “ I frankly 
confess," replied the Princess, “that I have 
not yet decided ; and don’t think I could ever 
bring myself to decide in the way you wish." 
“You astonish me, Madam," said Riquet of 
the Tuft. “ I can quite understand it," said 
the Princess ; “ and to be sure, if I had to deal 
with a brutal fellow, a man without sense, I 
should be in a terrible fix. . . . ‘ A Princess 
has only her word,’ he would say to me; ‘and 
you will have to marry me, since you promised 
to.’ But as I am talking to a man of the world, 
and one who is full of intelligence, I am sure 
you will listen to reason. You know that even 
when I was stupid I could not make up my 
mind to marry you. How can you imagine 
that now, when I have the mind that you gave 
me, which makes me far more critical of people 
than I was, I should take upon myself a 
resolution which I could not make before ? If 
you really wanted to marry me, you should 
never have taken away my stupidity, and 


RIQUET OF THE TUFT 83 

have made me see things now more clearly 
than I did.” 

“Come, now,” replied Riquet of the Tuft, 
“ you say that a man without sense would be 
quite within his rights in reproaching you for 
having broken your word. Can you wish me. 
Madam, to do differently in a thing where my 
life’s happiness is at stake ? Is it reasonable 
that people who have wit should be in a worse 
condition than those who are without it ? Can 
you pretend such a thing — you who have so 
much, and were so anxious to get it? But 
let us come to the facts. Apart from my ugli- 
ness, what is there about me that displeases 
you ? Are you ill-content with my birth and 
breeding, my wit, my disposition, or my 
manners?” “That is not it at all,” said the 
Princess ; “ I like in you everything that you 
have just mentioned to me.” “ If that is so,” 
replied Riquet of the Tuft, “I see happiness 
before me, for it is you who can make me 
the most lovable of men.” “ How can that 
happen ? ” said the Princess. “ It can happen 
right enough,” replied Riquet of the Tuft, “if 


84 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


only you like me well enough to wish me so. 
The truth is, Madam, that the same fairy who, 
on the day of my birth, gave me as fairy-gift 
the power to make anyone I pleased witty, 
gave you also the power of bestowing good 
looks upon the man whom you love, and to 
whom you would wish to grant the favour.” 

“ If that is so,” said the Princess, “ I wish 
with all my heart that you should become 
the handsomest and most lovable Prince in 
the world, and all the power that has been 
given me I would use on your behalf.” 

The Princess had no sooner spoken these 
words than Riquet of the Tuft appeared in 
her eyes the handsomest man in the world. 
Some people affirm that it was not the fairy 
charm that had done this, but love alone that 
had wrought the transformation. They say 
that the Princess, when she thought of the 
persistence of her lover, his discretion, and 
all his good qualities of mind and soul, 
saw no longer the deformity of his body nor 
the ugliness of his face. They say that his 
hump seemed to give him no more than the 


RIQUET OF THE TUFT 


85 


natural air of a man who happened to be 
arching his back ; and instead of noticing, as 
she had done hitherto, that he was a frightful 
cripple, she found nothing worse than an 
attractive limp. They say, too, that his eyes, 
which squinted, only seemed to her the more 
brilliant on that account — their squint being 
due to the intensity of his passion, and that 
his great red nose had for her something 
martial and heroic about it. 

However that may be, the Princess promised 
there and then to marry him, if only he could 
get the consent of her father. The King, 
knowing how highly his daughter esteemed 
Riquet of the Tuft, whom he knew besides as 
an extremely witty and wise Prince, received 
him with pleasure as his son-in-law. On the 
morrow the wedding was celebrated as Riquet 
of the Tuft had foreseen, and everything was 
done according to the arrangements that he 
had made long before. 


86 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


MORAL 

Here’s a fairy-tale for you, 
Which is just as good as true. 
What we love is always fair, 
Clever, deft, and debonair. 

ANOTHER MORAL 

Nature oft, with open arms, 
Lavishes a thousand charms ; 
But it is not these that bring 
True love’s truest offering. 

’Tis some quality that lies 
All unseen to other eyes — 
Something in the heart or mind 
Love alone knows how to find. 


Little Thumbling 

T here was once a woodcutter and his 
wife who had seven children — all boys. 
The eldest was only ten, and the youngest only 
seven. It may seem surprising that the wood- 
cutter should have had so large a family in so 
short a time, but the reason was that three 
pairs of them were twins. 

They were very poor, and the seven children 
were a terrible trouble, because there was not 
one of them who was old enough yet to earn 
his own living. What distressed them more 
was that the youngest was very delicate and 
would not say a word, and they took for 
stupidity what was really only a sign of a good 
and thoughtful nature. He was very small, 
and when he came into the world he was 
hardly bigger than a thumb. So he was called 
Little Thumbling. 


88 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


This poor child was the scape-goat of the 
household, and he was always supposed to be 
in the wrong. None the less, he was keener 
and cleverer than any of his brothers, and if 
he talked little, he did plenty of listening. 

There came one disastrous year, when the 
famine was so great that these poor people 
resolved to get rid of their children. One 
evening, when the children were asleep, the 
woodcutter was sitting by the fire with his 
wife, his heart wrung with grief. “You see 
well enough,” he said, “that we cannot get 
food for our children. I have not the heart to 
see them die before my eyes, and I have made 
up my mind to take them out to-morrow and 
lose them in the wood. It will be easy enough, 
for while they are busy tying up the fagots, 
all we have to do is to steal away without their 
seeing us.” “Ah,” cried the woodcutter’s wife, 
“ could you bring yourself to lose your chil- 
dren ? ” Her husband showed her all in vain 
how poor they were. She would not consent. 
She was poor, but she was also a mother. 

However, having pictured to herself what a 













He filled his Pockets with little white Pebbles 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


89 


grief it would be to see them die of hunger, 
she at last yielded, and went and lay down to 
cry. 

Little Thumbling heard all that they had 
said, for having guessed as he lay in bed that 
they were talking about something very im- 
portant, he got up very quietly and slid down 
beneath his father’s stool, where he could hear 
without being seen. He went and lay down 
again, but did not sleep all the rest of the 
night, thinking what he should do. He got 
up early in the morning, and went to the bank 
of a stream, where he filled his pockets with 
little white pebbles, and then came back to 
the house. They started off, and Little Thumb- 
ling did not tell his brothers anything about 
what he knew. 

They went into a very dense part of the 
forest, where at six paces distance they could 
hardly see each other. The woodcutter began 
cutting down branches, and the children 
gathered the twigs together to make bundles 
of them. The father and mother, seeing them 
busy over their work, gradually edged away 


90 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

from them, and then took to flight all of a 
sudden along a little by-path. 

When the children saw that they were alone, 
they began to cry and scream with all their 
might. Little Thumbling let them cry, know- 
ing that he could find the way back to the 
house, for as they had walked there he had 
let fall along the road the little white pebbles 
that he had in his pockets. “ Never fear, my 
brothers,” said he to them : “ our father and 
mother have left us here, but I will take you 
back to the cottage. Just follow me ! ” 

They followed him, and he took them to 
the house by the same road as the one by 
which they had come through the forest. They 
did not dare at first to go in, but they all 
crowded close against the door, to hear what 
their father and mother were saying. 

It so happened that almost at the very 
moment when the woodcutter and his wife 
arrived home, the lord of the manor had sent 
them six crowns, which he had owed them a 
long time, and out of which they had long 
ceased to hope for anything. This gave them 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


91 


back their life, for the poor folk were dying of 
hunger. The woodcutter sent his wife straight 
away to the butcher’s. As it was a long time 
since they had had a meal, she bought three 
times as much meat as would do for two people. 
When they had sat down again, the wood- 
cutter’s wife said, “ Alas, where are our poor 
children now ? How they would enjoy what 
is still left ! Remember, William, it was you 
who wanted to lose them. I was right when 
I said we should repent it. What are they 
doing now in that forest ? Alas ! — perhaps the 
wolves have eaten them already ! You are an 
inhuman wretch, that’s what you are, to have 
abandoned your children as you did.” The 
woodcutter grew impatient with her at last, 
for she kept saying more than twenty times 
over that they would repent it, and that she 
had told him so. He threatened to beat her 
if she did not keep quiet. It was not that the 
woodcutter was any less grieved than his wife 
— quite possibly he was more so. It was just 
that she made him lose his temper, and that 
he was like a good many other people — he 


92 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

did not mind his wife being right, but he 
found her very tiresome when she was con- 
tinually talking about it. 

The woodcutter’s wife was all in tears. “Alas, 
where are my children now — my poor chil- 
dren ? ” She said it so loud that the children, 
who were at the door, and had heard, began 
crying out all at once, “Here we are ! Here we 
are ! ” She ran quickly to open the door, and 
said to them, as she gathered them in her arms, 
“ How happy I am to see you back again, my 
dear children ! You must be very tired and 
hungry; and you Pierrot, how muddy you 
are ! Come and let me wash your face.” This 
Pierrot was her eldest son, whom she loved 
more than all the rest, because his hair was 
reddish, and hers was of the same colour. 

They sat down to the table, and ate with an 
appetite that delighted their father and mother, 
to whom they told all about their fright in the 
forest, talking all at the same time nearly 
always. These good people were quite over- 
come with joy at seeing their children once 
again with them, and the joy lasted as long as 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


93 


the six crowns held out. But when the money 
was spent, they fell back into their old trouble. 
They resolved to lose them again, and so as not 
to fail this time, they determined to take them 
still farther into the forest than they did before. 

They could not talk of this so secretly as 
not to be overheard by Little Thumbling, who 
made up his mind to foil their plan, just as he 
had done already. But although he got up 
very early in the morning to collect the little 
stones, he could manage nothing, for he found 
the cottage door doubly locked. He did not 
know what to do until the woodcutter gave 
them each a piece of bread for their breakfast, 
and it came into his head that he could use 
the bread instead of the stones, throwing it 
crumb by crumb along the roads as they 
passed. So he crammed it into his pocket. 

The father and mother took them to the 
densest and obscurest part of the forest, and 
as soon as they had reached it, gave them the 
slip and left them there. Little Thumbling 
was not in the least bit worried, because he 
thought he could easily find the road again by 


94 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


means of the bread that he had scattered 
everywhere along the way that they had come. 
But he was very surprised when, on turning 
back, he could not find a single crumb. The 
birds had come and had eaten it all. 

So there they were in sore straits ; for the 
longer they walked they only went farther astray 
and buried themselves deeper in the forest. 
The night came, and a great wind arose which 
made them shudder with fear. They fancied 
they heard on every hand the howling of 
wolves that were coming to eat them. They 
hardly dared to speak or to look round. Then 
there came a heavy rain which wetted them 
through and through to their very bones. They 
slipped at every step, and got up again all 
covered with mud, not knowing where to put 
their hands. 

Little Thumbling climbed to the top of a 
tree, to see if he could discover anything, and 
after turning his head each way he saw a little 
glimmer as of a candle, but it was far away, 
beyond the forest. He came down from the 
tree, and when he was on the ground again 


They only went farther astray 



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LITTLE THUMBLING 


95 


he could see nothing. This made him lose 
hope. However, after having walked some 
distance with his brothers in the direction in 
which he had seen the light, he caught sight 
of it again as they came out of the wood. 

They arrived at last at the house where the 
light was, not without a good many frights, 
for they often lost sight of it, which always 
happened when they went dowm into a hollow. 
They knocked at the door. A pleasant-looking 
woman came to open it. She asked them 
what they wanted. Little Thumbling told her 
that they were poor children who were lost in 
the forest, and begged her to give them a bed 
for charity’s sake. The woman, seeing that 
they were bonnie little fellows, began to cry. 
“ Alas, my poor children,” she said to them, 
“ what a place to come to ! Do you not know 
that this is the house of an Ogre, who eats 
little children ?” “Alas, Madam,” replied Little 
Thumbling, who was trembling all over, as 
also were his brothers, “what are we to do? 
It is certain enough that the wolves in the 
forest will not miss their chance of eating us 


96 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 

to-night, if you refuse to give us shelter in 
your house. If we must be eaten, we would 
rather it were his lordship who ate us ; and 
perhaps he will have pity on us, if you are 
kind enough to ask him.” The Ogre’s wife, 
who believed that she could hide them from 
her husband till the next morning, let them 
in, and took them to warm themselves in front 
of a good fire ; for there was a whole sheep 
on the spit, for the Ogre’s supper. 

Just as they had begun to get warm, they 
heard three or four loud knocks at the door. 
It was the Ogre, who was coming home. As 
soon as the wife had hidden them under the 
bed, she went to open the door. The Ogre first 
asked if the supper was ready and if the wine 
had been drawn, and then without more ado 
sat down to table. The sheep was still almost 
raw, but he seemed to like it better so. He 
sniffed right and left, saying that he smelt 
fresh flesh. “ It must be,” said his wife, “ the 
calf I have just dressed that you smell.” “ I 
smell fresh flesh, I tell you, for the second 
time — I smell fresh flesh ! ” replied the Ogre, 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


97 


looking askance at his wife ; “ and there is 
something here that is being hidden from me.” 
As he spoke these words he got up from the 
table and went straight for the bed. 

“ Ah,” said he, “ is that the trick you would 
play upon me, wretched woman ! I really 
don’t see why I should not eat you too. You 
may thank your stars you are old and tough. 
This is just the kind of meat I was wanting to 
set before three ogre-friends of mine, who are 
coming to see me in a day or two.” 

He took them from under the bed, one after 
the other. The poor children threw them- 
selves on their knees, and asked for mercy. 
But they had to deal with the cruellest of all 
the ogres, who, so far from having pity, was 
already devouring them with his eyes, and 
told his wife that they would be tasty morsels 
when she had made them a good sauce. 

He went and took a great knife, and, coming 
up to the poor children, sharpened it on a long 
whetstone that he held in his left hand. He 
had laid hold of one of them, when his wife 
said to him, “ What a thing to be wanting to 

I 


98 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


do at this time of night ! Won’t you have 
plenty of time to-morrow morning ? ” “Hold 
your tongue,” replied the Ogre ; “ they will be 
all the tenderer.” “ But you have such a lot 
of meat already in the larder,” replied his wife ; 
“there is a calf, a sheep, and half a hog.” 
“ You are right,” said the Ogre ; “ give them 
plenty of supper, so that they shall be nice 
and plump, and go and put them to bed.” 

The good woman was filled with joy, and 
took them plenty of supper, but they could 
not eat any, they were so frightened. As for 
the Ogre, he sat down again to drink, delighted 
at having something that would do so well to 
feast his friends upon. He drank a dozen 
draughts more than usual, which rather got 
into his head, so that he had to go and lie 
down. 

The Ogre had seven daughters who were 
still only children. These little ogresses had 
all of them beautiful complexions, because 
they ate raw flesh, like their father ; but they 
had little round grey eyes, hooked noses and 
very big mouths, with long teeth, very sharp 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


99 


and set at a distance from each other. They 
were not yet very savage, but they showed 
signs that they would be one day, for already 
they would bite little children to suck their 
blood. 

They had been put to bed about an hour 
before, and they were all seven in a great 
bed, each with a crown of gold on her head. 
In the same room there was another bed just 
the same size. This was the bed where the 
Ogre’s wife put the little boys to sleep, and 
then went away to sleep with her husband. 

Little Thumbling, who noticed that the 
Ogre’s daughters had golden crowns on their 
heads, and who feared lest the Ogre should 
repent of not having made his intended meal 
that very evening, got up in the middle of the 
night. 

Taking his own and his brothers’ caps, he 
went softly and put them on the heads of the 
Ogre’s seven daughters, after having taken 
their golden crowns and put them on his own 
and his brothers’ heads, so that the Ogre 
should take them for his daughters, and his 


TOO PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


daughters for the boys whom he wanted to 
eat. The thing succeeded as he had thought. 
For the Ogre, waking up soon after midnight, 
was sorry that he had put off till the morrow 
what he might have done the evening before. 
So he threw himself angrily out of bed. “ Let 
us go and see,” said he, taking his great knife, 
“ how those little rogues are getting on. No 
good making two bites at a cherry ! ” He 
groped his way up to his daughters' room, and 
went up to the bed where the little boys were, 
who were all asleep, except Little Thumbling, 
who was very much scared when he felt the 
hand of the Ogre fingering his head as he had 
fingered the heads of all his brothers. ‘‘A 
pretty mess I was going to make of things, and 
no mistake ! ” said the Ogre, when he felt the 
golden crowns. “ I see I must have had too 
much to drink yesterday evening.” He then 
went to his daughters’ bed, where he felt the 
little boys’ caps. “Ah, here they are, the 
rascals,” said he. “ Here goes ! ” As he said 
this, he cut the throats of all his seven 
daughters, without even a pause between. 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


lOI 


Very pleased with himself at his exploit, he 
went and lay down by the side of his wife. 

As soon as Little Thumbling heard the Ogre 
snore, he woke his brothers, and told them to 
dress quickly and follow him. They came 
down softly into the garden and scrambled 
over the walls. They ran almost the whole 
of the night, trembling all the time, and not 
knowing where they were going. 

The Ogre, on waking, said to his wife, ‘‘ Go 
upstairs and dress those little imps that came 
here yesterday evening.” The Ogress was 
very much astonished^ at her husband’s good 
humour. She did not doubt from the manner 
in which he told her to go and “ dress ” them 
that he meant her to go and put on their 
clothes. So she went upstairs, and was taken 
aback to see her seven daughters all with their 
throats cut, and covered with blood. 

She began by fainting — for that is the first 
thing that nearly every woman on such occa- 
sions finds she must do. The Ogre, thinking 
that his wife was too long over the business 
he had charged her with, went upstairs to help 


102 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


her. He was not less astonished than his wife 
when he cast eyes upon this dreadful spectacle. 
“ Ah, what have I done here ? " cried he. 
“ They shall pay for this, those young wretches, 
and that soon ! ” 

Thereupon he threw a jugful of water over 
his wife’s nose, and brought her to. “ Give 
me my seven-league boots quickly,” said he, 
“ so that I can go and catch them.” He set off 
into the country, and after having run a long 
way in each direction, he finally came along 
the road where the poor little children were 
walking, hardly more than a hundred paces 
from their father’s cottage. They saw the 
Ogre, who strode from mountain to mountain, 
and who crossed broad rivers as easily as he 
might have done the tiniest brook. Little 
Thumbling, who saw a hollow rock near where 
they were, made his brothers hide there, and 
squeezed himself in too, keeping all the while 
a sharp look-out for anything that the Ogre 
might do. The Ogre, who was very tired 
after his long and fruitless journey — for seven- 
league boots are very tiring to anybody who 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


103 


wears them — was in want of a rest, and 
happened to go and sit down on the rock 
where the little boys were hiding. 

As he could not go on any further for fatigue, 
he went to sleep, after having rested some 
time, and began to snore so frightfully that 
the poor children were hardly less frightened 
than when he held his knife over them to cut 
their throats. Little Thumbling was braver, 
and told his brothers to escape as quickly as 
they could to their father’s cottage, while the 
Ogre was sleeping so soundly, and to keep out 
of harm’s way. They took his advice, and 
quickly reached the cottage. 

Little Thumbling, going up to the Ogre, 
gently drew off his boots, and proceeded to put 
them on himself. The boots were very big 
and very broad, but as they were fairy- boots 
they had the power to grow large or small in 
accordance with the legs of their wearer, so 
that they fitted his feet and his legs just as if 
they had been made for him. 

He went straight to the house of the Ogre, 
where he found the wife still weeping by the 


104 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


side of her slaughtered daughters. “Your 
husband,” said Little Thumbling, “ is in great 
danger, for he has been taken by a gang of 
robbers, who have sworn to kill him if he does 
not give them all his gold and all his silver. 
At the moment when they were holding the 
dagger to his throat, he saw me, and asked 
me to come and let you know what was 
happening to him, and to tell you to give me 
everything he has got, without keeping any- 
thing back, because otherwise they will kill him 
without mercy. As the matter was so pressing, 
he wished me to wear these seven-league 
boots that I have got on, so that I could get 
here the more quickly, and also that you 
should not think I was an impostor.” 

The good wife, very frightened, gave him 
immediately everything that she had, for this 
Ogre had taken care to be a very good husband, 
although he ate little children. Little Thumb- 
ling, being duly laden with all the Ogre’s 
wealth, came back to his father’s cottage, where 
he was received with much joy. 

There are a good many people who do not 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


105 

agree with this part of the story, and who 
pretend that Little Thumbling never stole 
anything from the Ogre, though it was true he 
had not scrupled to take his seven-league 
boots, because they were only used for running 
after little children. These folk affirm that 
they have it on good authority, and even from 
having eaten and drunk in the woodcutter’s 
cottage. They affirm that when Little Thumb- 
ling had put on the Ogre’s boots, he went to 
the Court, where he knew there was great 
anxiety about an army, which was two hundred 
leagues off, and about its success in a battle 
which had been fought. 

He went, they say, to find the King, and 
told him that, it was desired, he would bring 
him news of the army before the end of the 
day. The King promised him a large sum of 
money if he should succeed. Little Thumbling 
brought the news that very evening. This 
first feat having brought him into notice he 
got all he wanted, for the King paid him ex- 
ceedingly well to carry his orders to the army, 
and any number of ladies were prepared to 


K 


io6 PERRAULT’S FAIRY TALES 


give him everything he cared to ask to get 
tidings of their lovers. By this means he 
made more than he did by any other. There 
were some women who entrusted him with 
letters to their husbands, but they paid him 
so poorly, and there was so little doing so far 
as they were concerned, that he did not trouble 
to keep any account of the profit he made in 
this quarter. 

After he had been working for some time 
as a courier, and had amassed considerable 
wealth, he came back to his father’s, where he 
was received with more joy than can be 
imagined. He ensured that the whole family 
should live in comfort. He bought newly- 
created dignities for his father and for his 
brothers, and saw them well established. At 
the same time he himself grew in fortune and 
in favour. 


LITTLE THUMBLING 


107 


MORAL 

Children are a pride to all 

When they’re handsome, straight, and tall. 

But how many homes must own 

Some odd mite who’s seldom shown — 

Just a little pale-faced chap. 

No one thinks is worth a rap ! 

Parents, brothers, laugh him down 
Keep him mute with sneer and frown. 

Yet it’s Little Thumbling may 
Bring them fortune one fine day ! 


PRINTED BY 

THE D£ LA MORE PRESS LTD. 
32 GEORGE STREET 
HANOVER SQUARE 
LONDON, W, 



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